This Guy!

This Guy!
Big Man Brecht

Thursday 20 December 2012

Gesture + Attitude = Gestus

Gestus

Gesture + Attitude = Gestus 

So we understood 'Gestus' in the way Brecht would use it we did the following tasks.

Task 1:  Everybody gets into a pair and labels themselves A and B. A's then go to one end of the room and B's go to the opposite side standing opposite their partner. Next all the A's have to think of a nursery rhyme they can say and to all at the same time try and shout it to their partner and for the partner to here it. when everybody was shouting at the same time from one side it was very difficult to understand what your partner was saying. The next step of the task was to not shout the words of the nursery rhyme but to do gestures to act out the song as if they were in a crowded party and your mate cant hear you at all. This time is some ways it was clearer but in others it was difficult to understand when your partner was gesturing 'baaaa baaa black' from Ba Ba Black Sheep. The final stage of the exercise was to not only shout but to gesture at the same time. This out of all the stages was the easiest to understand. The lesson we learnt from this was that in Brecht gesture and over the top acting is important. I found this exercise fun and helpful as it helpfully explained one of Brechts acting styles in the form of a game.

Task 2: Task 2 was about discovering 'Gestus' but also looking at stereotypes. This was also a paired exercise so to start everybody was to get into pairs. Once in pairs the leader (Saz) would say two things that would go together, for example Romeo and Juliet, Cat and Mouse, Sweet and Sour, War and Peace and Rich and Poor. What we discovered was that in all of the pairs still images the gestures were large, obvious and the stereotypical representation of the two things. It was not just gesture though it was also in facial expressions and attitude. When the words rich and poor were called out a strange thing happened indeed; everybody did the same or very similar still image... but why? All of the rich people would have there faces looking with pompous arrogance towards the poor who were all on the floor or lower level, hunched over and sad looking. What we learnt from this was that in Brechtian theatre everything is played to the stereotype and in some ways overacted. What we learnt about 'Gestus' was that with large and stereotypical gestures and attitude it is very easy to represent a character in a Brechtian way. 

Task 3: In Task 3 an actor (Paris) was told to walk into the room as a soldier and then out again and for the rest of the audience to just watch what he does. What we noticed is by playing the stereotype of a soldier he used gestures and movements that a stereotypical British officer might make. Apart from this he also had the attitude and stature of a British officer. This demonstrated 'Gestus' because to create the character the actor had to use both the attitude and gestures of a British officer. The next part of the task was the same as the first but this time the soldier has to walk through a field with seven dead bodies in it (seven dead actors). When this was done the attitude and gestures of the soldier changed to make it more clear who he is, what side he is on and if he cares about the dead. 

Task 4: Task 4 was a group exercise. The class splits into two groups/teams and one group goes on one side of the room and the other group on the other side. Each group had to create two contrasting still images; the first, 'War the maker of heroes' and the second 'War the taker of lives'.Both these contrasting image were Gestic because the gesture and attitude were the only two things showing you what was going on and when the image changed s did the gesture and attitude.

In conclusion i felt that all of the above tasks were very helpful and fun when learning about Gestus.


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